


A Corrected Mistake

by KeytoMyCity



Series: The Doctor's Adventure in Child Rearing [1]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Beware of the Baby Adric, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-12
Updated: 2014-01-12
Packaged: 2018-01-08 11:10:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1131941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeytoMyCity/pseuds/KeytoMyCity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack goes back and fixes a moment the Doctor could not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Corrected Mistake

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I have a bit of an Adric obsession, and may need help. Pardon me if it gets cheesy at any point, I'm either really angsty or really cheesy when I write.

Jack sighed as he paced around the dimly lit TARDIS console room, the Doctor once again was shutting him out and not telling him what his problem was. He was all doom and gloom staring down at the Earth. It was getting on Jack’s nerves. He finally got to be with the Doctor again (despite it only be a few weeks), but now he won’t talk to him. 

Finally after another twenty minutes Jack got to his knees in front of the spiky haired alien. “I beg of you please tell me why you are moping so I can fix it. I hate it when you get into a mood like this.”

The brown eyes looked at him instead of the screen for a second then returned. “No.”

Jack continued to stare despite the lack of eye contact. “Why? Talking helps.”

Another glance, “I haven’t spoken about what happened to anyone except those with me at the time.” 

Jack frowned, “If you don’t tell me, maybe the TARDIS will.” 

The long military jacket he wore fluttered around him as he stood to go back to the console.

This time the Doctor‘s eyes locked onto Jack‘s, “Jack, don’t.”

“Doctor I want to fix what happened so you’re not sad, or at least help you move on.” Jack’s hands were on his hips now.

“I know, so sit down it’s a long story.” The Doctor rubbed his forehead in exasperation, some days he regrets letting Jack back onto the TARDIS. At least Jack sat obediently. “A long time ago Romana, a fellow time lord, and I were traveling together when we hit turbulence. We landed on a planet called Alzarius…” The Doctor told the tale of a former life with a young boy that though his tone Jack decided was like a son to him. Then as he gained more companions it became clear the more neglected Adric got. “Then Adric refused to leave the freighter determined to save the Earth, a planet he only went to a few times. As Tegan, Nyssa, and I watched the freighter hoping that somehow Adric would stop it, the thing crashed. It exploded taking Adric with it. One of my youngest companions died, and it was meaningless. The freighter only killed the dinosaurs, so he died for nothing. Now do you see why this day hurts?”

Jack looked at the Doctor sadly, realized losing someone he thought of as his child dying, and he was unable to stop it must have felt awful. “I understand, but what I don’t understand is why you couldn’t go back and save him.”

“I tried, a lot actually. Especially after the Time War I thought maybe it was the Time Lords protecting the freighter, but it wasn’t. I just couldn’t. So I gave up.” The Doctor sounded extremely defeated.

“What happens if you try?” 

“The TARDIS never takes off if the coordinates are set for anywhere in the area of the time and place of Adric’s death.”

Jack smirked, “Well what if to save Adric a TARDIS wasn’t used?”

“What are you getting on about Jack?” The Doctor just looked at him.

He just shook his right wrist. “I could use my vortex manipulator to save him.”

Doctor shook his head vehemently, “Jack you could die. Adric could die… again.”

Jack looked at him like he had lost it. “Death, no problem.”

“Fine, try, but don’t tell me what happens, I can’t handle the guilt anymore.” The Doctor leaned over and input the proper combination to the device. “It’s programmed for the freighter right on time, you don’t have a lot of time when you got there, I had to guess how long between the crash and the last we heard from him that the crash occurred. Be safe Jack.”

“Will do Doc.” Jack pressed the button to dematerialize and he was off.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Earth was drawing nearer as Adric watched, his brother’s belt in his hands. This isn’t how he expected his life to end, but he was doing what he thought was right, saving the Earth. Why wouldn’t he try and save it, it was the Doctor’s favorite place. He sighed, “Now I will never know if I was right.” 

Despite the thoughts of his calculations, thoughts of Tegan, Nyssa, and the Doctor filled his mind as well. He wondered if they’d miss him, or if they were going to happy that he was gone. He knew the Doctor would miss him, but the girls treated him rudely so maybe they won’t. He was resigned to his death when a voice called his name once. Then again.

“Is someone there?” Adric called as he turned around. He saw nothing for a moment then a man in a long coat appeared from the dark. “Thank goodness, I was getting worried, I couldn’t find you. Man the Doctor would have been mad at me, I’m Captain Jack Harkness, a friend.”

Adric gave him a look, “The Doctor sent you?” 

Jack nodded fiddling with a device on his wrist. “Yes, but we need to leave.”

The boy gave Jack a once over. Nothing about the coat or the hair seem inherently evil, but that didn’t mean much considering the Master could transfer bodies. If it was the Master all he could hope for was a chance to escape or be saved so he ran towards the man and grabbed his arm.

“Now that I have you we can leave, so hang on tight Adric.” The man pressed buttons on the device again, and the two disappeared as the freighter started to glow.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It was only moments after he dematerialized that he materialized back in front of the Doctor. The look the Doctor was sporting wasn’t the one he was expecting. It was a look of confusion, but it wasn’t directed at him, it was directed at the person beside him, who was smaller then he was before the trip. The 17 year old was now toddler sized, naked, and looking back up at the Doctor with a confused look in his brown eyes as well.

“He wasn’t like that before.” Jack said in his defense.

“I figured.” The Doctor leaned down and picked the toddler up. “Come on Jack let’s go see if the TARDIS can figure out what happened.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Twenty minutes later they were still clueless. Standing in the medbay of the TARDIS with Adric on a table.

“So what, he’s just a normal toddler?” Jack asked as the Doctor gently poked and prodded the brown haired child who was dressed in an oversized t-shirt. 

“I’m guessing so. I’m not entirely sure how Alzarians are when they’re toddlers, but they are really similar to humans in nature. The sensors says he’s about two.” The Doctor took another look at the child. “The only thing the sensors are picking up is some sort of anomaly his system similar to what you give off.”

“So I did this?” Jack frowned, he didn’t like hurting kids.

“Not on purpose, but I told you there was something blocking the time and place surrounding Adric’s death. So I’m guessing that did something with the anomaly in you. Did you feel like you died or anything?”

Jack thought about for a moment, “I do feel a bit off, like I’m younger then I was before I left.”

The Doctor turned to pace the length of the room. “I’m think that somehow you protected him subconsciously and since you were in the time vortex weird things happened. I probably can’t reverse the effects, so the question is how much did you protect him? Is he immortal or what?

“I, for one, am not going to test it out.” Jack half joked earning a slight glare from the Doctor. 

“I’d rather not joke about hurting Adric.” The Doctor picked up the little Adric who continued to stare at him with wide brown eyes. The Doctor looked down at him, “I wonder if your brain regressed as you body did.”

The child shook his head causing both adults to give him a strange look. “You can understand us?” Jack asked him receiving another nod as an answer. “Can you talk?”

Adric tried to speak, but a coo came out instead. He frowned at the lack of vocalization he produced.

The Doctor chuckled. “It’s okay Adric, I can understand baby. Now I have a lot to tell you.”

He went and sat down on one of the nearby chairs while Jack leaned against the table. He put Adric in his lap facing him. “I guess you figured I regenerated again.” Adric cooed again. “Actually this is my fifth regeneration since I last saw you. It’s been a long time for me. I’m in my 900’s now. Man I’m old.” The Doctor ran his hand through his hair unsure how to proceed. “I want you to know Adric, I tried to save you myself, several times. Almost right after it happened when Tegan and Nyssa were asleep. And after the Time War, which you actually don’t know about, but that is a bit much to explain right now, but something was blocking me from saving you. I felt terrible, and still do, that I couldn’t save you.”

“Luckily I came along again, right Doc.” Jack smiled at the two.

“Yes luckily. Jack here has a vortex manipulator. It could get through whatever it was preventing me from saving you.” The Doctor smiled back at Jack. “I’m really glad I didn’t take it from him when I could’ve.”

Adric turned and gave a toothy grin to Jack as well then turned back to the Doctor. “Now that you’re back with me Adric, we’re going to go on many adventures together again.” 

“Good thing I’m here too, you’d have trouble raising a baby by yourself wouldn’t you?” Jack smirked.

The Doctor glared. “I did have kids, Jack.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Doctor, Jack, and Adric headed back to the console room, and Jack noted a new door had appeared along the first hallway. “What is this?”

“I think it was Adric’s old room, the TARDIS must have moved it here. Though if I remember correctly Tegan gave it to Turlough.” The Doctor pushed the door opened, and the sight made Adric giggle happily. “Yes Adric it seems the TARDIS returned it to the state it was before Turlough received it with an added crib.”

The twin sized bed Adric had previously was replaced by a crib, but his desk and books were still in their right places. Jack walked in and looked in the dresser realizing they had nothing baby sized for Adric. “Doc we have a problem. He needs clothes and diapers.” 

“I figured that. We’ll go to an Earth mall after we get him settled.“ The Doctor received angry babble from Adric. “And yes Adric I know you’re mentally a seventeen year old, but your body is still two. You must be exhausted.”

The Doctor walked over the crib switching Adric to one arm pulled the blankets back and put Adric in the crib. 

“Now Adric you be a good boy and sleep for awhile. Jack and I will either be in here or the console room, so we should be able to hear you.” Adric nodded. He curled against the small pillow, closed his eyes, and almost instantly fell asleep.

~~~~~~~

As the Doctor got Adric settled, Jack wandered around the room picking up things here and there. He noted an abnormal amount of notebooks and notepads around the room. He grabbed a nearby one, and instantly was bombarded by numbers and equations filling the pages. “Doctor, what’s this?”

Doctor took the notepad frowned. “That is Adric’s equations for how to return to E-Space and to his people.”

“Why would he calculate that? You said he had nothing left for him there.”

“I may have left out in the days before his death we got into a big fight about how I treated him compared to the girls and he wanted to go home with his own people. I told him it was impossible, but he was positive he could work it out. I wouldn’t hear it and went for a walk. During that time Adric was worked out how to get back to E-Space on his own safely. He was an excellent mathematician almost worked out how to do the block transfer computation on his own.” The Doctor sighed, “On my walk we ran into some humans and some androids, the androids were bad and we got stuck in a corner. Then Adric found us, and despite me telling him not to do anything he took on one of them.”

Jack smiled, “You sound impressed.”

“I was, and after both Androids were destroyed we discovered a bomb. Adric wouldn’t leave so he helped me dismantle the bomb. I was so proud of him. So when we got to the TARDIS, I apologized for the argument, and he apologized as well. I told him I would like to see his equations, and he showed me. They were perfect they accounted for everything that might come up. When I asked if he really wanted to go home, he told me he didn’t and he had nothing left for him there.”

“I bet you were relieved.”

“I was extremely relieved, but then the Cybermen happened, and he died. His life was cut short for nothing.” The Doctor’s voice quivered a little, but recovered instantly. “I had so much to teach him.”

“You get that chance Doctor, you can be a dad to him.” Jack clapped his shoulder. “Now let’s go program the TARDIS for the nearest mall.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The TARDIS landing woke Adric up, and the toddler’s first instinct was to cry causing the Doctor to rush into the room and sweep Adric into his arms. “I’m so sorry Adric I forgot the TARDIS landings are a bit rougher then they used to be.”

Adric frowned, and gave a coo.

“I know you are mentally seventeen, but some times instinct takes over and as your body is two it will act as such. Now are you ready to get some clothes?” The Doctor bounced him a little as the child nodded. “Well then. Allons-y.”

The duo walked to where Jack was waiting by the door. He instantly leaned over and pinched Adric’s cheek. “I see our little friend has awakened.”

A tiny hand tried to bat the bigger hand away.

“Yes Adric has awoken, but we need to go shopping he can’t go around wearing Mickey’s old things forever.” The Doctor said shifting Adric to his hip, so he could open the TARDIS doors. As he stepped out he turned to Jack, “Mind locking up?”

“Not at all.” They had landed right outside of a big mall seeming in England some place. Ignoring the looks Adric was receiving for only wearing an oversized t-shirt the Doctor and Jack headed straight to the closest baby store in the place. There was a female employee waiting to greet customers by the door. “Hello how may I help you today?”

“I need to find some clothes for this little one and maybe some toys as well.” The Doctor said politely, then as an afterthought from reading her nametag, “Jane.”

“Well I can show you where the clothes are that will fit him are, and the toys are in that general direction. We have a wide variety of baby toys and clothes hopefully we’ll find some that suit you, your partner, and your son.” The lady smiled at the three and led them towards the back of the store giving them no chance to tell her she was wrong about her assumptions.

The store itself was in shades of blue and pink and covered in cartoon characters. It was definitely a place only babies and mothers could love, but Jack seemed to be curious in every bit of it. “Oh Doctor he would definitely love playing with this!” He would tell the Doctor every once in awhile in the short walk. 

“He looks about the size 2T maybe 3T.” Jane said as she looked him over. “You should find something here. If you need anything else you can come and find me.”

“Thank you Jane.” The Doctor called to her as she walked away. Then he turned to racks upon racks of baby clothes. “Holy crap Jack.”

“I agree. I also think we should get bigger sizes as well because we’re going to be unsure how fast he will grow.” Jack said as he fingered through the clothing when he found something in particular. “Oh my this is perfect.”

The Doctor switched the hip Adric was on, both wondering what Jack found. “What did you find?”

Jack pulled off the rack a shirt that said, “I think my dad is an alien.”

“Jack.” The Doctor gave him a look.

“Well it’s somewhat true, and you’re getting it.” Jack replied determined, and Adric nodded happily at the choice.

The Doctor sighed. “Fine, I definitely won’t win if you both pout at me.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Several hours and bags of clothes and toys later, Jack, Adric, and the Doctor left the mall. They had made sure they had all sorts of clothes for Adric as he grew up again. They even went into kid’s shops to get even bigger clothes.

By the time they returned Adric fell asleep again, and the Doctor went straight to Adric’s room to put him to bed. Jack followed behind so they could get the clothing and toys all put away. “I think we should put him into some pajamas, Doc.”

“I agree.” The Doctor pulled out a pair of green and yellow ones that vaguely reminded him of the outfit Adric always wore when he was with the Doctor. Despite being jostled around a bit Adric didn’t awaken.

Jack smiled at the Doctor after Adric was settled back into the crib again. “Well Doc, I think we’re going to do a good job with raising him.” 

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “Us?”

“Yes us, well until I’m ready to set Torchwood up again. I need to make sure Earth is protected when you’re not here.” Jack said with a slight shrug. “If it’s okay if I stay here?”

The Doctor smiled, “You’re always welcome, Jack. I could probably used the help with Adric, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a child on the TARDIS.” 

“He’s going to have a great time between the two of us, I can tell you that.” Jack gave the Doctor a grin right back his eyes alight with something the Doctor decided was mischievousness.

“I can only hope, Jack.”

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize if this didn't make any sense. I tried my best. I needed to release my Adric feels somehow.


End file.
